


Weathering the Storm

by jdmusiclover



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:54:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jdmusiclover/pseuds/jdmusiclover
Summary: Set a few months after the series finale, Killian is beside himself with worry when baby Hope wakes with a fever.  He searches out one of the best mothers he knows for advice.
Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 62





	Weathering the Storm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [snowbellewells](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowbellewells/gifts).



Killian prided himself on being fearless. He’d stared down death more times than he could count--even succumbed to it a time or two. He’d faced down villains, pirates, even gods themselves without flinching. He’d quite literally gone through hell itself, steely resolve firmly in place. Aye, Killian Jones was a man with whom fear had never gotten a foothold.

That was, at least, until the first time he’d seen her. Hope Swan-Jones, along with her mother, was the light of his life. He’d known from the moment she’d first been placed in his arms that there was nothing, _nothing_ , he wouldn’t do for her.

She was his greatest blessing, but she was also his greatest source of fear.

She’d been so tiny, so helpless when she’d been born. What if something had happened to her? What if he couldn’t fulfill the most basic role of the parent--to protect his child? Swan had assured him time and time again that he was a good father, that Hope was in good hands--well, _hand_ , to be precise--with him, but still he’d worried.

And so Emma had humored him when he’d gone through and painstakingly baby-proofed the entire house to a degree she’d thought excessive. Though she’d assured him it wasn’t necessary, she’d helped him fashion a small, pink guard for the tip of his hook. She’d taken every opportunity to show him how happy it made her that he was such an attentive parent.

Unfortunately Dr. Whale hadn’t been as indulgent. After one too many calls to the doctor over something apparently minor, Whale had forbidden him to call for anything less significant than an eight out of a ten point scale.

Which left Killian in the position he was currently in--pacing Hope’s nursery, fruitlessly trying to quiet her cries as the panic threatened to consume him.

Hope had been a pleasant baby from the first, quick with a smile, constantly babbling and chattering. He’d found it a point of pride when her first tiny word amid the nonsense babble had been “papa”. In her nearly one year of existence, his little cygnet hadn’t had a day of sickness, save, perhaps when she was cutting her first little teeth.

Today, however, when she’d woken from her morning nap, she been listless, cranky, congested. What terrified him to his very bones, though, was how very hot her tiny forehead felt. There was no doubt his little Hope had a fever.

_ Fever _ . The very word struck fear in him. Growing up, he’d known many a person to succumb to a fever. His mother herself was one of them. 

If something happened to Hope….

Killian took a deep breath, feeling his little girl snuggle into him, her cries softening into little sniffs. He couldn’t lose his head. He couldn’t let panic take over. He had to deal with the situation.

His first thought was to call Swan. She’d taken the morning shift at the sheriff’s station while he stayed home with the baby. He knew she had a busy day today, however, and didn’t want to worry her. He’d next thought of Whale, but who was to say whether this illness rated at least an 8?

What he needed was a mother. Suddenly he knew exactly what to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Killian, what a nice surprise!” Snow White said with a warm smile as she opened the sturdy wooden door of the farmhouse she shared with Charming and young Prince Neal. “With David and Neal off on their boy scout campout to the Enchanted Forest, I was feeling kind of lonely. Would you like to--Killian, is everything okay?”

Killian stepped inside, holding Hope close. His face must have telegraphed his anxiety. “It’s the little one,” Killian said. “She woke with a fever this morning and I’m beside myself. I--I needed a mother’s advice, and aside from Swan, of course, you’re the best mother I know.”

Snow’s face softened, and wordlessly she reached for Hope. He placed his daughter in her arms, as Hope listlessly--and rather congestedly--muttered “nana,” 

“It’s going to be alright, Killian,” she said, placing her free hand comfortingly on his arm. “Babies run fevers sometimes. It’s usually nothing to worry about. By the look of her, Hope just has a little case of the sniffles.”

Snow ushered Killian into her bright, cheerful kitchen and motioned for him to take a seat at the table. He watched her bustle around, putting a kettle on, preparing them both a cup of tea, and a feeling of calm, a certainty that all would be well settled over him.

There was something about the Lady Snow that simply exuded comfort. It was not unlike the feelings he’d gotten from his own mother before her passing.

Snow handed Hope back to her father as she rummaged through a cabinet in her pantry. 

“I’m sorry to bother you. Perhaps I’m overreacting,” Killian said, as Snow grabbed a plastic bottle of red liquid and then sat beside him at the table, “but I’ve known many a child begin with fever and end up fighting for their very lives.”

“Killian,” Snow said, shaking the bottle she’d retrieved, “you can always come to us, David and me, when you have concerns. We’re family after all. Don’t ever think you need to feel embarrassed about how much you care for Hope and Emma. It’s one of the things we love most about you.”

He and Swan were soon to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary, yet it still overwhelmed him sometimes, this feeling of _belonging_ he now had--not merely coming from her, but coming from her entire family; now _his_ family. After several lifetimes of being alone, it was like paradise, knowing he had family to count on when things got difficult.

In spite of himself, Killian felt himself getting choked up. “That means more than you’ll ever know.”

Snow smiled gently before putting an eyedropper in the bottle and extracting a small amount of the liquid. “This is infant Tylenol,” she said, checking the container and then eyeing the dropper again. “It was a lifesaver for us when Neal was a baby. Give her a little bit of this every few hours--the directions are on the bottle--and her fever will go down and she’ll start feeling better.”

Several hours later, Hope slept peacefully in her crib, warm and comfortable for the moment, and Killian settled into bed, wrapping his arms around Emma. She kissed him soundly before settling into her favorite position, nestled up to him.

“Not that I’m complaining Love,” he said, softly caressing her back, “but what was that for.”

“It was for being such an amazing dad,” she said. “Hope’s really lucky to have you.”

He resisted the urge to scratch behind his ear. “Swan, I told you how helpless I felt when the cygnet woke with a fever. I hardly felt like an amazing father.”

She brought a hand up to caress his cheek. “But then you got help. You did everything you could to make her feel better, and that’s all any of us can do. I’m serious, Killian. There’s no one out there I’d prefer to have as my baby’s daddy.”

“And there’s no one I’d prefer to have as my baby’s mother,” he said, kissing her softly.

“Hope seems to be on the mend,” Emma said after settling back into her position next to him, “so it looks like we made it through this first crisis. Wonder how many more we’ll have to weather before she’s grown.”

Killian chuckled. “I’m sure she’ll lead us on a merry chase, our little cygnet. But together, with our family by our side, I know there’s nothing we can’t handle.”

**Author's Note:**

> I see that today is @snowbellewells birthday, so I decided to write her a little hurt/comfort, family, Killian/Snow, CS fic. Happy birthday, Marta! (I patterned Hope in this story after my youngest niece, who will be celebrating her first birthday later this month. She just got over a cold (which she gave to me), and as literally everything can be turned into a CS fic, here you go!)


End file.
